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Fast Track
Sleek, comfortable, accessible, and sustainable, high-speed rail is the future.
Since Japan’s Bullet Train first sped down the track in the sixties, it has become a global icon, as famous for its punctuality as for its speed.
The French TGV, or Train à Grande Vitesse, established a template that was soon followed across Europe, in Italy, Germany and Spain
But with a remarkable 30,000 miles of track built in fewer than twenty years China has become the world leader.
Now with lines built or planned in over twenty countries, high speed rail has changed the world and, faced with the environmental cost of cars and air travel, might help save it.
Two countries, both pioneers of rail travel, have been conspicuously left behind, though. The UK, which before the Second World War built record-breaking high-speed trains, has just sixty-eight miles of high-speed line and the unfolding embarrassment of HS2, while the United States has no genuine high-speed line at all. How can this be?
In Fast Track, Christian Wolmar, our leading railway writer, tells the story of the irresistible rise of high-speed rail around the world for the first time. From the magnificence of Britain’s steam-engined Mallard to a 250 mile per hour future, this is a story of big personalities, bold decisions, cutting edge technology, and soaring ambition.
All aboard!
Since Japan’s Bullet Train first sped down the track in the sixties, it has become a global icon, as famous for its punctuality as for its speed.
The French TGV, or Train à Grande Vitesse, established a template that was soon followed across Europe, in Italy, Germany and Spain
But with a remarkable 30,000 miles of track built in fewer than twenty years China has become the world leader.
Now with lines built or planned in over twenty countries, high speed rail has changed the world and, faced with the environmental cost of cars and air travel, might help save it.
Two countries, both pioneers of rail travel, have been conspicuously left behind, though. The UK, which before the Second World War built record-breaking high-speed trains, has just sixty-eight miles of high-speed line and the unfolding embarrassment of HS2, while the United States has no genuine high-speed line at all. How can this be?
In Fast Track, Christian Wolmar, our leading railway writer, tells the story of the irresistible rise of high-speed rail around the world for the first time. From the magnificence of Britain’s steam-engined Mallard to a 250 mile per hour future, this is a story of big personalities, bold decisions, cutting edge technology, and soaring ambition.
All aboard!
400 pages, Hardcover
Published July 23, 2026
About the author
Christian Wolmar
49 books87 followersChristian Wolmar is a journalist, focusing on the history and politics of railways.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 6, 2026
Thorough popular overview of the creation, history, operation, and prospects of high speed rail around the world, starting with efforts to get trains the fastest they could go in the 19th and early 20th centuries in the UK and US, efforts that frequently disregarded safety concerns and made for interesting reading. Most of the book is a country-by-country assessment of modern high speed rail in various countries, starting with the first, Japan’s famed Shinkansen or bullet train, brought into operation just prior to the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 1964, with the first line connecting the four largest cities in Japan, Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, and Osaka. Wolmar explored why Japan was uniquely suited to building the first true high speed line, looking into such factors as cars still being a luxury and travel by rail still used by as much as 45% of passengers in the 1960s and the strong organizational skills, independence, prestige, and resources of Japanese National Railways (JNR). In the section on Japan, Wolmar discussed many general aspects of high speed rail, such as high speed rail uses multiple powered axles rather than singular heavy locomotives and how that high speed trains being lighter put less wear and tear on tracks. Though almost all high speed rail had on going issues with noise abatement, some concerns were nearly unique to Japan, such as engineering rail lines to withstand earthquakes (in Taiwan earthquakes were also a concern).
High speed rail was examined in France (Train a Grande Vitesse or TGV), Germany, Italy (often hampered by corruption, bureaucracy, and rotating governments though one of the few places that has actual competition among high speed trains), and then Spain. Spain in particular was fascinating, how the country went from a moribund, antiquated rail system in the 1970s, stagnating under Franco, to today with the best and most extensive high speed rail network outside of China.
China was also fascinating, going from its first high speed rail in 2008 to the world’s largest and most up to date system, over 30,000 miles of high speed rail. Then high speed rail in South Korea, Uzbekistan (using Spanish equipment), Taiwan, Turkey (initially hampered by byzantine bureaucracy), the Spanish-built Haramain High Speed Railway serving Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia (many unique challenges), and Morocco’s Al Boraq (Africa’s first high speed rail service).
The “twin failures” of UK and US high speed rail get quite a bit of coverage, with coverage of the Chunnel in the UK and the closest things the US has to high speed rail such as the Brightline between Miami and Orlando, Florida. The US section covered such things as how important it was to have a highly placed backer like a president, the overwhelming profitability of freight lines to railroads over passenger trains, and the many lobbying groups opposed to high speed rail.
The author closed with a discussion of the proposed hyperloop train, advantage and disadvantages of high speed rail, and would it would take for high speed rail to succeed in the US.
High speed rail was examined in France (Train a Grande Vitesse or TGV), Germany, Italy (often hampered by corruption, bureaucracy, and rotating governments though one of the few places that has actual competition among high speed trains), and then Spain. Spain in particular was fascinating, how the country went from a moribund, antiquated rail system in the 1970s, stagnating under Franco, to today with the best and most extensive high speed rail network outside of China.
China was also fascinating, going from its first high speed rail in 2008 to the world’s largest and most up to date system, over 30,000 miles of high speed rail. Then high speed rail in South Korea, Uzbekistan (using Spanish equipment), Taiwan, Turkey (initially hampered by byzantine bureaucracy), the Spanish-built Haramain High Speed Railway serving Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia (many unique challenges), and Morocco’s Al Boraq (Africa’s first high speed rail service).
The “twin failures” of UK and US high speed rail get quite a bit of coverage, with coverage of the Chunnel in the UK and the closest things the US has to high speed rail such as the Brightline between Miami and Orlando, Florida. The US section covered such things as how important it was to have a highly placed backer like a president, the overwhelming profitability of freight lines to railroads over passenger trains, and the many lobbying groups opposed to high speed rail.
The author closed with a discussion of the proposed hyperloop train, advantage and disadvantages of high speed rail, and would it would take for high speed rail to succeed in the US.
August 9, 2026
I preordered this having previously read or listened to several of the writer's books. This book had some interesting parts,but didnt hold my full attention as much as those Christian has written about global train history. The trouble is this book is narrowly focused on speed alone,so the part about how Japan led the way through it's innovations in distributed power as a way to increase speed was great to learn about and to hear about how the possibility of hyperloop has been overhyped was refreshing. Much of the book delves into cost comparisons and politics and helped me understand why America doesnt embrace public transport,which has to do with it's socialistic overall benefit to society. China is a country of engineers and America is a country of lawyers,which I heard previoisly in the book,Breakneck,and also helps to understand why Asia is much further evolved than the US. The thought of maglevs or trains that can exceed 400KPH is frightening,but not yet cost effective. There have been a number of high speed train accidents and a brief chapter talks about them,but mostly high speed rail has been safe.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews